Five steps to make PvP more enjoyable and rewarding

There are many, many good ideas on these forums that I wish the developers looked towards in the past for inspiration. And while overall, the balance seems to be getting further away from where we all wish it were it seems, at times there are moments when I get the feeling it's not all over yet and there may yet come fixes and balancing that would make it worth-while to stick around longer.

With that in mind I'll list 5 things that I believe would immensely improve the PvP experience and get people to come back, spend more time in WZs and level their alts for PvP.

1) Remove Recruit gear from the game. There is no need for this. The gear gap is too wide and spending time redesigning it is a wasted effort -- scrap it.

2) Hand out a full set of BM gear at 50, the way Recruit is handed out currently. PvP should be about competition and skill, not about a mindless grind that can take 2-3 months, more if you have an average lifestyle. The difference between BM and WH still rewards the player for actively PvPing by giving a few percent more in performance. In addition to that, most BM geared players won't be augmented any more until they get WH, so some gap will still be there.

In addition to this, add a hidden stat to all NEW PvP armor, starting with the new free BM sets: 50% reduction on bonus damage and healing (maybe even armor rating) in Operations and Flashpoints ONLY. You enter an ops or a fp with your new free shiny set of BM armor, your effectiveness is cut in half. However, it will still make you viable for doing lvl 50 dailies and other quest content. Or remove the damage and healing bonus completely in ops and fps, that armor should not be worn in there. Make sure everyone knows this happens via a pop-up window.

3) Implement a 1500 Ranked WZ Comms limit on all PvP gear, meaning those EWH weapons and offhands are now 1500 ranked comms. Regular WH weapons at 1k. ALL armor at 1.2k equally. All other accessories 1k even.

There is no reason anyone should spend more than 2-3 days on getting a single piece of PvP gear. If you think PvP is about the grind you don't get PvP.

4) Remove inventory caps on WZ comms limits. Remove them completely and start rewarding your PvPers for doing what they love, not punishing them for it by deciding when they can buy something or not. If one wished to PvP from level 10 all the way up to 50, and save up for a half of the WH set right at 50 -- why not allow them? They put the time and the effort in and should be rewarded by being competitive when they reach 50. Reward your players and they will reward you.

In fact, if you combine 3 and 4, you can remove ranked comms completely and revert everything back to just WZ comms with no cap limit. Simple and easy.

5) Fix the new 1.4 memory leak and increase WZ performance. Don't know how to help you here.

I think if you implement these changes as a set of improvements, you would truly bring back some of the lost PvPers and create a much more enjoyable experience for current and new customers. The gap between players would lessen a bit and PvP would become more competitive and strategy based, on a more consistent basis.

Players would also take the time to dust off and outfit most if not all of their alts, and while doing so would not only spend more time playing but would learn new classes better in PvP and increase the overall skill cap of the player base -- less crying, more knowledge, more quality PvP.

It may actually motivate players to create that new class they've always wanted to play at 50 but were not looking forward to the grind and massacre in order to get to that point.

I'm sure some will not agree, but please let's keep it civil and let us give some input for the devs -- perhaps they will listen to some of it.

The end. This pretty much solves all of the other issues you listed. PvP doesn't need to be a completely separate gear grind. It's just another MMO time sink that forces players who want to enjoy both aspects of the game to grind out another set of gear.

Allow players to use whatever moddable shell they want, and have armorings/mods available for purchase so that players can customize stats to their liking with reasonable thresholds in mind. Tanks should be able to mod for higher HP, while DPS should be able to mod for higher damage. Put Alacrity stats on healer gear so that it actually means something.

Keep the token system for unique PvP moddable armor shells for aesthetics only! Level the playing field.

There are many, many good ideas on these forums that I wish the developers looked towards in the past for inspiration. And while overall, the balance seems to be getting further away from where we all wish it were it seems, at times there are moments when I get the feeling it's not all over yet and there may yet come fixes and balancing that would make it worth-while to stick around longer.

With that in mind I'll list 5 things that I believe would immensely improve the PvP experience and get people to come back, spend more time in WZs and level their alts for PvP.

1) Remove Recruit gear from the game. There is no need for this. The gear gap is too wide and spending time redesigning it is a wasted effort -- scrap it.

2) Hand out a full set of BM gear at 50, the way Recruit is handed out currently. PvP should be about competition and skill, not about a mindless grind that can take 2-3 months, more if you have an average lifestyle. The difference between BM and WH still rewards the player for actively PvPing by giving a few percent more in performance. In addition to that, most BM geared players won't be augmented any more until they get WH, so some gap will still be there.

In addition to this, add a hidden stat to all NEW PvP armor, starting with the new free BM sets: 50% reduction on bonus damage and healing (maybe even armor rating) in Operations and Flashpoints ONLY. You enter an ops or a fp with your new free shiny set of BM armor, your effectiveness is cut in half. However, it will still make you viable for doing lvl 50 dailies and other quest content. Or remove the damage and healing bonus completely in ops and fps, that armor should not be worn in there. Make sure everyone knows this happens via a pop-up window.

3) Implement a 1500 Ranked WZ Comms limit on all PvP gear, meaning those EWH weapons and offhands are now 1500 ranked comms. Regular WH weapons at 1k. ALL armor at 1.2k equally. All other accessories 1k even.

There is no reason anyone should spend more than 2-3 days on getting a single piece of PvP gear. If you think PvP is about the grind you don't get PvP.

4) Remove inventory caps on WZ comms limits. Remove them completely and start rewarding your PvPers for doing what they love, not punishing them for it by deciding when they can buy something or not. If one wished to PvP from level 10 all the way up to 50, and save up for a half of the WH set right at 50 -- why not allow them? They put the time and the effort in and should be rewarded by being competitive when they reach 50. Reward your players and they will reward you.

In fact, if you combine 3 and 4, you can remove ranked comms completely and revert everything back to just WZ comms with no cap limit. Simple and easy.

5) Fix the new 1.4 memory leak and increase WZ performance. Don't know how to help you here.

I think if you implement these changes as a set of improvements, you would truly bring back some of the lost PvPers and create a much more enjoyable experience for current and new customers. The gap between players would lessen a bit and PvP would become more competitive and strategy based, on a more consistent basis.

Players would also take the time to dust off and outfit most if not all of their alts, and while doing so would not only spend more time playing but would learn new classes better in PvP and increase the overall skill cap of the player base -- less crying, more knowledge, more quality PvP.

It may actually motivate players to create that new class they've always wanted to play at 50 but were not looking forward to the grind and massacre in order to get to that point.

I'm sure some will not agree, but please let's keep it civil and let us give some input for the devs -- perhaps they will listen to some of it.

TLDR -- don't be lazy; if you're not here to read, why are you here?

BM gear is about 10% less in terms of stats than WH. Handing out BM gear is ridiculous. The recruit set does its job, it covers the gap between NO GEAR and BM. WH gear is just bragging rights gear, it won't make you that much better in any appreciable way. In fact, there are some stats that are better on the BM mods depending on what you need.

I DO agree with removing the limit on comms. I don't see why we have the ridiculously low cap on comms. At least bump it to 3000 WZ comm cap.

BM gear is about 10% less in terms of stats than WH. Handing out BM gear is ridiculous. The recruit set does its job, it covers the gap between NO GEAR and BM. WH gear is just bragging rights gear, it won't make you that much better in any appreciable way. In fact, there are some stats that are better on the BM mods depending on what you need.

I DO agree with removing the limit on comms. I don't see why we have the ridiculously low cap on comms. At least bump it to 3000 WZ comm cap.

I never see anyone who post nonsense like this put on their recruit gear and show us how its done....video demonstrating that gear gap is an non-issue, please

Should they also hand out a free set of columni? Because if I don't have to progress in pvp I shouldn't be forced to progress to enjoy pve either, right? There's a game where time commitments are irrelevant to your performance, it's called guild wars 2. Have a blast, I sure didn't.

i prefer the gearing system from SWG. dont get me wrong, there was a lot wrong with the way SOE did things, but the gearing system was superb.

everything was crafter based. PvE/PvP rewards were unique, deconstructable items that needed to be recrafted to reach their best potential. gearing your toon could take a matter of minutes once you reached max level if you prepared properly.

Should they also hand out a free set of columni? Because if I don't have to progress in pvp I shouldn't be forced to progress to enjoy pve either, right? There's a game where time commitments are irrelevant to your performance, it's called guild wars 2. Have a blast, I sure didn't.

I do agree with having the comm cap be much higher though.

I enjoy GW2, but even there you just get the PvP gear which can't be used in PvE and you have to aquire your PvE gear to use it.

My Old Republic Warring is MagicLana Everhope - The Drudenfusz Legacy, Shadow Tank on The Red EclipseWhen you play the game of PvP, you win or you die.English version <- SWTOR Wiki -> German version

Should they also hand out a free set of columni? Because if I don't have to progress in pvp I shouldn't be forced to progress to enjoy pve either, right? There's a game where time commitments are irrelevant to your performance, it's called guild wars 2. Have a blast, I sure didn't.

I do agree with having the comm cap be much higher though.

That's nonsense. In GW2 only the warzones provide you with a free gear set that has the same stat allocation for everyone, and you can only use that armour in warzones. This provides for the fun and fair pvp matches where skill and spec determines who wins that PVP'ers have been asking for since the early days of WOW. For PvE & Realm vs Realm vs Realm PvP you do need to earn your armour and I dare say it's much harder than in SWTOR where you can get a full set of columni in a day.

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The statements and opinions expressed on these websites are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by Bioware, LucasArts, and its licensors do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for any content on these websites.